1. Field of Invention
This invention describes a magnetic securement device magnetically attached to an in-situ sheetrock fastener. Once in place, the magnetic securement device can support objects desired to be displayed on a wall.
2. Description of Prior Art
There are many magnetic clips and photo frames on the market today. Typically they consist of a low strength magnet affixed to a clip or frame. The clip is usually made of steel or plastic. Photo frames can be made of plastic or foam. Very few examples of high power rare earth magnetic clips or frames exist. The common low strength magnetic clips and frames are designed to hang on a heavy ferric surface such as a steel file cabinet or refrigerator. However, most interior walls of buildings are sheathed with sheetrock. This is the most common wall surface available for hanging interior display objects. The only available in situ ferric objects near the surface of these walls are corner reinforcers and sheetrock fasteners.
The most common of these two in situ ferric objects are steel sheetrock fasteners. These exist in nearly all sheetrock walls just beneath the surface. These fasteners are driven through a panel of sheetrock into a wall stud and there secured. The driven head of these fasteners is generally flat and quite small, a half inch or less in diameter. The fasteners are either steel screws or steel nails. They are usually covered by a thin layer of sheetrock compound and then overlaid with paint, stucco, or wall covering. They, therefore, cannot be seen. Due to the fact that these fasteners are small, covered, and not visible, no magnetic clip has been designed utilize to them. No securement device known today is able to attach to these small heads and cling there with enough strength to support a display object.
A common tool used to locate sheetrock fasteners is the magnetic stud finder. This device uses a magnet to locate undersurface steel objects and visually indicate their presence. These devices have no ability to attach themselves to the fasteners.
One web site does mention the possibility of a rare earth, neodymium magnet attaching itself to a sheetrock fastener. The index page to this website is www.gaussboys.com. Under their “Super Magnet Applications” is a subsection titled “Redecorate your home”. In it the web site states, “Try using a couple of neodymium super magnets as stud finders when you are hanging pictures on a wall. The magnets will stick to the sheet rock nails on the studs and give you a great visual of what you have to work with while you make all of your pictures look balanced on the wall.” This procedure realizes what others have done before with magnets, namely to merely locate nails in the wall. This text indicates no understanding of using the magnets to secure an independent display object to the nail and there support it. The magnets simply provide visual information for the locating of studs. This use of magnets simply follows the known art of locating sheetrock fasteners through magnetic detection. The authors here mention only the possibility of the magnets supporting themselves.
Having a magnet support an independent object for display is entirely different than simply supporting itself. This ramification is not mentioned or foreseen by this web site. This section of the site does not mention any combination of a neodymium magnet and a clip or display object.
Further evidence exists that the gaussboys site does not anticipate hanging independent objects on the magnets attached to the sheetrock fasteners. The gaussboys site is an e-commerce site organized to sell magnets and related goods. If the authors of this site had understood the possibility of hanging objects with the magnets, they certainly would have explicitly described such an assembly. Such an application could greatly boost the commercial sales of the site if that use was exploited.
No other combination of neodymium magnets attached to sheetrock fasteners is known in the public domain.